Elliott Management Is Said to Push for Change at SoftBank

Elliott — one of the corporate world’s most successful activist investors, which push for big changes in a target company’s strategy — has privately urged SoftBank to take a number of steps to raise its market value, which was about $89 billion on Thursday, the people said. By comparison, the value of SoftBank’s public holdings in its Japanese telecom affiliate, Alibaba of China and the American wireless carrier Sprint is about $210 billion.

One of Elliott’s chief proposals is having SoftBank buy back up to $20 billion of its own shares, which should push up their price. The firm has also suggested shaking up SoftBank’s board, which has just two independent directors, and giving more transparency into the operations and management of the Vision Fund, which some investors have complained is a black box.

News of the discussions was reported earlier Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

Elliot’s stake, which amounts to nearly 3 percent of SoftBank’s market value, is one of the hedge fund’s biggest current bets, two of the people with knowledge of the investment said.

In a statement, Elliott said the firm’s “substantial” investment in SoftBank “reflects its strong conviction that the market significantly undervalues SoftBank’s portfolio of assets.”

So far, the talks have been friendly, the people said. Mr. Son has taken part, as have SoftBank’s chief financial officer, Yoshimitsu Goto, and the head of the Vision Fund, Rajeev Misra.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/business/dealbook/elliott-management-softbank.html?emc=rss&partner=rss